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Babies in China have grown breasts after they were given milk laced with hormones.

The terrifying scenes of female infants with plump breasts have caused uproar among parents in central China, who fear that the milk powder they used has led to the premature growth.

The official China Daily newspaper reports that medical tests indicated that the level of hormones in three ‘test case’ girls, ranging in age from four months to 15 months, exceeded those found in the average adult woman.

All the babies who showed symptoms of the phenomenon were fed the same baby formula.

But the company which prepared the milk powder denied it had added hormones and it is now thought the blame lies with dairy farmers and the way they are raising their cows.

China has no regulations that control the use of hormones in cattle, a widespread practice used by farmers to fatten the animals and increase milk production.

Dairy products in many countries, including Britain and other EU nations, do not contain hormones but it is a different story in China.

‘Since a regulation forbidding the use of hormones to cultivate livestock has yet to be drawn up in China, it would be lying to say nobody uses it,’ said Mr Wang Dingmian, the former chairman of the dairy association in the southern province of Guangdong.

EU scientists have found that when hormones, which are generally introduced into animals by an ear implant under the skin, are given to cattle the level of their hormones increases by as much as 20 times.

These hormones find their way into the meat and milk, resulting in EU scientists concluding that ‘no acceptable daily intake could be established for any of these hormones.’

They said that people who consumed food products containing the increased hormones were at great risk of severe hormonal imbalance.

Chinese doctors now believe that as farmers work harder at increasing their cattle’s milk production, the use of hormones is increasing – with devastating effects on babies that are fed a formula from the milk.

‘The amount of hormones in the babies definitely means there’s a problem,’ said Mr Yang Qin, chief physician in the child care department at the Hubei Maternity and Children’s Hospital.

He urged parents to stop using the formula and insisted that the milk powder be subjected to chemical analysis.

But his suggestion has come up against red tape.

Local food safety authorities have refused one mother’s request to investigate the formula, made by the Synutra company, claiming they do not conduct tests when requested by consumers.

According to the Global Times newspaper the suspect baby formula is still being sold in the Hubei provincial capital, Wuhan, at discounted prices and is also on store shelves in Beijing.

Synutra insisted that its products were safe, claiming that ‘no man-made hormones or any illegal substances were added during the production of the milk powder’.

Two years ago Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide after it was revealed that melamine, used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.

At least six infants died and 300,000 others fell sick as a result of the malamine additions, it was claimed.

It has been compared to the baffling case of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, who, as you’ll all recall, disappeared from her bedroom while her parents were on holiday with friends in Portugal three years ago.

Now, on the other side of the world, in Sydney, another little girl has vanished from her bedroom in equally mysterious circumstances.

I fear for Kiesha Abrahams. Her mother, Kristi Abrahams, says she put her to bed in pink pyjamas at the flat she shared with her partner Robert Smith last Saturday – and in the morning she was gone. Ms Abrahams said there was no sign of a break-in and there was immediate speculation that Kiesha had either let herself out or had been abducted.

But in the days that have followed, disturbing questions have arisen. If Kiesha had let herself out and was wandering the suburban streets, surely it would not have been long before someone found her and called the police? And if she had been abducted…how did the kidnapper gain such easy access to the flat and why take that particular little girl?

While these questions await answers worrying facts continue to emerge. For a start, no-one, aside from the claims of her mother and her partner, has been able to say they had seen Kiesha for three weeks before her disappearance. She had not been to school since her brother, Levi, was born three and a half weeks ago,and in fact had only attended her class for five days in the whole of this year.

Now Sydney’s Daily Telegraph has reported that it has learned from police sources that, as a toddler, Kiesha was admitted to hospital with a bite wound inflicted by an adult. And there are claims that the child and her mother were ‘known’ to the child welfare service.

Ms Abrahams, with Mr Smith at her side, appeared before tv cameras on Tuesday begging for information about her missing daughter. But her words were almost indecipherable amid her howls and because she held a tissue to her mouth. She kept her head down and her eyes were shielded by dark glasses, leading to members of the public writing to newspapers saying that in their opinion it was all an act.

Her partner Mr Smith said the past few days had been hell. ‘I can’t describe what it’s like in my shoes – you can’t imagine the last few days. It gets harder by the minute,’ he said.

A massive search of the neighbourhood, including police and volunteers searching back gardens, storm drains and bushland, has failed to turn up any clues as to the whereabouts of Kiesha.

Will this turn out to be another Madeleine McCann case – a little girl who vanished never to be seen again? Time will tell, but I suspect we may have an answer to what happened to Keisha in the very near future.